Making it right
by xJordanKayX
Summary: *Spoilers for 2x18* Since we all wanted to see Alice be with FP and not Hal last episode, this is my attempt at fixing this mistake. "This time he's prepared to fight for what he wants"


I just couldn't NOT write this... my Falice heart couldn't take it :)  
This is un-betad (as always) and not edited. I basically just typed that and put it up! So, all mistakes are shamefully mine...

enjoy

* * *

Making it right

He's been feeling like crap ever since she had left Pop's that day. He's been the one making advances towards her; calling her hot on public, giving her appreciative looks whenever he thinks no one is watching, holding her hand in a booth in this very diner, with their children sitting just opposite them. Yes, he has done absolutely nothing to hide the fact that he still has at least some kind of feelings for her - up until that day.

She has not ever outright told him to stop with his advances, but she has never really played into them either; maybe apart from the hand holding, but that had been a gesture merely for comfort anyway. At least that's what he tries to tell himself.

And then, just when she finally comes to him, when she finally drops the facade and makes a step forward, he's being an asshole about it. They had spent one of his best nights in the last twenty years together and what does he do when she reaches out? He goes and rejects her - as publicly as possible without actually having a full on lover's quarrel at his workplace.

It had taken him exactly five seconds after she left before he realized she was right. They *were* making the same mistakes all over again and he also realizes, in that exact moment, that he doesn't want that. And this time he's prepared to fight for what he wants.

So he puts on his best shirt and takes the card he's bought her from the kitchen table. It's not much, just something to show her how proud he is of her (it's the same card he's given her twenty years ago on opening night of their school musical), paired with a few, short, heartfelt words to express how sorry he is for acting like a jerk. He hadn't planned to show up at the musical from the beginning; yes, his son is involved in the production and Betty is in it, too but he's not the guy for events like this. And then he came to one conclusion: as much as Alice might want to uphold her Northside image, the way she had come to him in public means she's not scared of what the people around them might say or think. And it also means, that, if they do this, it will not be hidden. This realization had left him with really only one option.

Seeing her with her husband almost crushes him. The smile he has on his face upon seeing her, falls even fast than he had put it on in the first place. For a second his gaze flies to the card in his hands, then he looks back at her with *him* and he can't do it. If it's *him* she wants, then she could have *him*; he's done worrying about her and how she's still able to break his heart even after all these years.

He turns around, takes exactly one step in the direction of the door he's just come through, when another thought takes the forefront in his mind. _Screw it!,_ it seems to scream. She doesn't want Hal, she's made that clear enough when she had chosen first Chic and then him over her own husband. He's not sure what is going on up there, but what he knows is that this time he will not give up so easily. Especially not after she's told him exactly _what_ she wants - he's just been to stubborn to listen in that moment.

It only takes a split second for him to make his mind up, and then he turns around again and makes his way over to the stage. It's almost time, so he has to hurry before she disappears backstage, but he reaches them just in time. She looks at him rather surprised (Hal is sparing one dark look in his direction and ignores him again) and it only mixes with confusion when he walks right up to her and pulls her down the side steps of the stage. He might be prepared to stake a public claim, but kissing his (married) High School flame (not to mention the mother of his son's girlfriend) up on a stage surrounded by people was maybe a bit too public.

She doesn't even protest when his lips claim her's in a sweet yet passionate kiss. She could have pushed him away, told him to go screw himself and go back to her family or show up at his trailer later and tell him she doesn't want to be kissed by him in public. Yes, she could do all that, but the simple truth is that she doesn't want to. What she wants is to kiss him right now, to wind her hands through his shirt hair, while he ruins the carefully applied locks she's been taking ages for. She wants him and she wants the world to know that, too.

Somewhere in the very far back of her mind, she registers her husband leaving and she doesn't care. She'll always be grateful to him for being willing to make this work when she needed someone, when she thought she had lost everyone. But he's just not the one she really wants to be with.

He pulls back first, smile on his face and lightly frames her face with his hands. "I'm sorry" It's barely a whisper because he hasn't found his breath yet, but she hears him just fine enough.

"I'm still mad at you for that" she says and the words come out a bit muffled because he's still holding her face between his hands, stroking her cheeks softly with his thumb. "But I am willing to discuss _us_ after the show" She might be still mad, that hasn't been a lie, but she's also really glad he finally figured out what he wants.

"I'll be here" he promises, and then he remembers the card he brought her. He hands it over with the instruction to open it backstage, without him. She smiles, tells him she will and then she hears Kevin Keller's voice from behind the curtain gathering his ensemble.

"This reminds me of High School" he says with a smirk on his face when he notices her rolling her eyes at the boy.

"No" is her reply, hands reaching up to play with the lapels of his jacket. "If this was High School, you would be up there with me and" she pauses a moment for dramatic effect "there would be way less people staring at us right now"

He still laughs when he kisses her one last time for luck, watches her disappear behind the curtain and searches for a seat in the first row ignoring the looks he receives.


End file.
